"SZE" 2005 Obituary

SZEDLECKI o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2005-08-22 published
'Nobody's daughter' spoke up
Ann SZEDLECKI's
Holocaust tale
Survivor told her story until the end
By Catherine
DUNPHY,
ObituaryWriter
Ann SZEDLECKI was a powerful and popular speaker for Toronto's
Holocaust Centre.
"I think you are brave for standing up in front of a bunch of
students to tell your story; it must have been hard to tell us
some of those awful memories from your past," wrote one student
from King City Secondary School.
"I don't think I would last as long as you did. Unlike me, you
never gave up," wrote another.
"It opened my eyes and informed me about something I knew little
about," a third student commented.
And a fourth wrote: "I believe that people like yourself, who
struggled during the war, should speak out and share their stories."
But SZEDLECKI, who died of cancer May 7 at 79 and was buried
on Mother's Day, had to be talked into telling her story. At
14 she was alone in Siberia, sentenced to six months of hard
labour, her brother imprisoned for supposed political crimes,
but she always said she was never in a concentration camp and
therefore really wasn't a Holocaust survivor.
"At first she was a bit reluctant to talk, especially with an
Auschwitz survivor like me," recalled Judy
COHEN, who as co-chair
of the Holocaust Centre's speaker bureau interviewed all potential
speakers four or five years ago when
SZEDLECKI was approached
to tell her story.
"I said 'Ann, you lost your family. The end result is you are
a Holocaust survivor of a different sort. It's good for people
to know there are varied experiences.'"
That accomplished,
COHEN had to then talk
SZEDLECKI out of telling
her story the way she was accustomed to: as an adventure story
of a spirited young girl.
"I think she missed the point of her own suffering," said
COHEN.
"I told her to tell them the absolute truth and put it in an
historical context, otherwise it is just a sad story. As I said
to her 'You didn't enjoy the adventure.'"
SZEDLECKI listened and became a fine speaker, someone who understood
that this kind of storytelling is more educational than cathartic.
"Her story became what it should be," said
COHEN.
But first she wrote it down over the 10 years in which she attended
Toronto author Sylvia
WARSH's creative writing classes at the
Bernard Betel Centre for Creative Living.
"My mother became a whole other person once she muttered the
words 'I am a writer,'" said her daughter, Lynda
KRAAR.
"She was a natural storyteller," said
WARSH, who helped
SZEDLECKI
produce a 200-page autobiographical manuscript. "Look at page
three, starting 'I am nobody's daughter.' It is great stuff."
Her manuscript begins as Ann
FRAJLICH is leaving the Soviet Union
after six years, leaving behind the unmarked grave of her brother
Shoel -- dead at 23 from tuberculosis contracted as a result
of being arrested for cooked-up political crimes, tortured and
imprisoned -- and leaving with only a bag of dried bread, a jar
of melted butter, a few clothes and size 12 shoes on her feet.
She is returning to her hometown of Lodz, Poland, even though
her entire family had died in the Warsaw Ghetto.
"I am nobody's daughter, nobody's sister, nobody's granddaughter,
daughter-in-law, sister-in-law, aunt or cousin," she wrote. "My
past is all gone, it disappeared."
In 1940, her worried parents had sent her off with her brother
to the Soviet Union where they would work for one year to "wait
out, hopefully, the short war," as she wrote. They were transported
to Ridder (later renamed Leninogorsk) in western Kazakhstan,
in Siberia, about 500 kilometres from the Chinese border.
And it was true, she was a bit giddy over what she considered
to be a great adventure, excited to be going to a new place and
to be out on her own. She didn't even mind when she was put to
work painting bathhouses and enrolled in school. But after her
brother was arrested, she was thrown out of the school and ended
up hauling bricks, then later peeling potatoes and washing dishes
in a mining cafeteria.
When she took three days off work without permission to bury
her brother in the frozen spring of 1943, she was sentenced to
six months of hard labour in appalling conditions at a labour
camp. She lugged railway ties to build a new line, shovelled
snow to clear roads, cut down trees and freed logs from a frozen
river, but she was also carrying the grief of her brother's death
and her guilt that she wasn't with him when he died.
After being released she volunteered to work underground in the
mines, loading the ore into wagons. She hated it but, typically,
wrote instead about "the miracle of my survival" in which she
left the pile of ore she was sitting on to boldly ask the foreman
for a cigarette -- and just as he handed her a smoke, the pile
collapsed. "I could've been buried under tons of ore," she cheerfully
concluded.
"I can even go so far as claiming that smoking saved my life."
(The children and students to whom she later told that story
just loved it.)
"Since she was 14, my mother has been invincible," said
KRAAR.
She married soon after the war, a man who was 11 years her senior,
a concentration camp survivor with the numbers forever burned
into his forearm. Abraham
SZEDLECKI was "a wounded, traumatized
and sad guy," according to his daughter and the marriage was
never a happy one, although it lasted until her death.
The couple moved to Canada in 1953 after three years living in
Israel and both went to work in the garment district. He pressed
coats, she sewed on buttons. But it wasn't long before the boss
promoted her to bookkeeping duties in the office and even though
she'd had no experience doing books, she learned fast.
Although Abraham stayed in the factory, she left her job in 1965
when a store out on Albion Rd. became available.
"She took out a loan for $5,000 -- this little Holocaust lady
with Grade 7 education -- when all her Friends were saying don't
do it," her daughter recalled.
For years, her women's clothing store was the most successful
business in the Shoppers World Mall on Albion Rd.
KRAAR --
SZEDLECKI's
only child and travel companion on holidays -- had married and
moved to New Jersey by the time
SZEDLECKI retired in 1990.
"They were close, closer than I could imagine," said Masha
AMI,
KRAAR's best friend since they met at camp when they were 11.
"I could see they were not only mother and daughter but Friends."
The Friendship was always volatile, however, as both were strong,
talented and stubborn women who liked to do things their way.
As SZEDLECKI and her husband had long been leading separate lives
although continuing to share their Bathurst Manor area bungalow,
she threw herself into volunteer work.
She had always been involved with her Masada chapter of Hadassah-Women's
International Zionist Organization, but she began driving for
the Kosher Meals on Wheels program and serving on a committee
managing funds provided to survivors through the Jewish Material
Claims Against Germany Inc.
She kept up her writing and her talks until the last year of
her life.
Her husband, suffering from Alzheimer's, moved into a care facility,
but she stayed where she was determined to be, in her own home.
KRAAR said she kicked into overdrive, often staying for weeks
to care for her weakening mother in her home.
SZEDLECKI died in her home listening to show tunes and singer
Theodore Bikel.
And as far as
KRAAR is concerned, her mother's story isn't over.
She's writing a show about her mother's life. One song is finished,
which KRAAR, an amateur musician and publicist, performed in
a small club in New York City recently. It was part of Mamapalooza,
a celebration of mothers.

SZEGVARY o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2005-06-15 published
MURPHY,
David▼Knox▼
Born January 26, 1917 in Winnipeg, died peacefully June 10, 2005,
in Toronto. Dave was a warm, kind, out-going, generous man who
lived life with a positive outlook and a deep sense of gratitude.
He joined Barber-Ellis (Barbecon) at age 17 and retired 48 years
later in 1982 as President. Dave was an avid golfer and a member
at The Hunt Club and a long time member of Rotary. Throughout
his life Dave was active in his Church. Dave is predeceased by
Peggy, his loving wife and best friend of 60 years and by his
brother Kenneth (Helen,) sisters Kathleen (Jim)
GRAHAM and Peggy
(Sid) MALLIN.
Dave▼ will be sadly missed by his two sons and their
wives Ken and Jean and Dave and Cherry and by his daughter and
husband Marnie and Kal
SZEGVARY and granddaughters Shannon, Christine
and Traci and great-granddaughter Emma, as well as many other
family members and Friends. A celebration of Dave's life will
be held on Monday, June 20th at 1: 30 p.m. at Lawrence Park Community
Church, 2180 Bayview Avenue, Toronto M4N 3K9 (416) 489-1551.
Flowers gratefully declined. If Friends so desire a memorial
donation may be made to the outreach program 'Out of the Cold'
c/o Lawrence Park Community Church.

SZEGVARY o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2005-06-14 published
MURPHY,
David▲Knox▲
Born January 26, 1917, in Winnipeg, died peacefully June 10,
2005, in Toronto. Dave was a warm, kind, out-going, generous
man who lived life with a positive outlook and a deep sense of
gratitude. He joined Barber-Ellis (Barbecon) at age 17 and retired
48 years later in 1982 as President. Dave was an avid golfer
and a member at The Hunt Club and a long time member of Rotary.
Throughout his life Dave was active in his Church. Dave is predeceased
by Peggy, his loving wife and best friend of 60 years and by
his brother Kenneth (Helen,) sisters Kathleen (Jim)
GRAHAM and
Peggy (Sid)
MALLIN.
Dave▲ will be sadly missed by his two sons
and their wives Ken and Jean and Dave and Cherry and by his daughter
and husband Marnie and Kal
SZEGVARY and granddaughters Shannon,
Christine and Traci and great-granddaughter Emma, as well as
many other family members and Friends. A celebration of Dave's
life will be held on Monday, June 20th at 1: 30 p.m. at Lawrence
Park Community Church, 2180 Bayview Ave., Toronto, M4N 3K9, (416)
489-1551. Flowers gratefully declined. If Friends so desire,
a memorial donation may be made to the outreach program "Out
of the Cold" c/o Lawrence Park Community Church.

SZEKERES o@ca.on.middlesex_county.london.london_free_press 2005-08-15 published
SZEKERES,
Alex
(April 9, 1953-August 15, 2004)
Always on our minds
Forever in our hearts!
A year...went by without you. We pause, and wonder how we could
continue on, but the lessons of love and life you gave us have
given us strength to move beyond our tears.
Each moment, each day we cherish the memories, the gifts you
left with us. Your very essence, your wisdom, strength, courage
and "la joie de vivre" with which you embraced life will remain
eternal in each one of us you loved.
Your epitaph reveals your message to all....
Life is Beautiful - Live it!

SZEMAN o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2005-01-22 published
KALISZ,
George
Passed away, at Northumberland Hills Hospital, Cobourg, on Thursday,
January 20, 2005. George
KALISZ, beloved husband of Vera
SEMENIW.
Loving father of Kristina. Brother of Olga
SZEMAN,
LydiaKALISZ,
and the late Leon and Nick
KALISZ. Survived by sisters-in-law
Myra and Sonia
KALISZ and their families. Friends will be received
at the Allison Funeral Home, 103 Mill Street North, Port Hope,
Sunday 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. Funeral Service Monday 1 p.m. If desired,
memorial contributions may be made by cheque to the Heart and
Stroke Foundation or Canadian Cancer Society. www.allisonfuneralhome.com

SZENEGETO o@ca.on.middlesex_county.london.london_free_press 2005-11-28 published
WALKER,
Robert
Peacefully at Victoria Hospital on November 20th, 2005, Mr. Robert
WALKER of London in his 57th year. Loving brother of Sandra
SZENEGETO
of Leamington, Wayne
WALKER of Florida, Jackie
WALKER of Windsor
and Cheryl
PETIT of Windsor. Predeceased by his parents Robert
and Betty WALKER.
Also survived by several nieces and nephews.
Private family arrangements entrusted to Needham Funeral Services,
520 Dundas Street, London. Tributes may be left at www.mem.com

SZEPS o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2005-12-21 published
NEWMAN,
JamesDavid
Passed away quietly and peacefully on Saturday, December 17,
2005 at West Park Health Clinic, in his 83rd year. Jim was the
younger son of Charlotte
ECCLESTONE and Herbert
NEWMAN, brother-in-law
of Barbara and brother of the late Ted
NEWMAN.
Loving husband
of Elizabeth (Betty)
HULL and dear father of Suzie and Terry
NEWMAN,
Paddy, husband Paul
SZEPS, and Christine, husband George
KAWA. Dear grandpa, grampy and poppy of Tyler, Hailey, Stevie,
Jack and Cary. Jim worked at the Alliance Paper Mill and Thorold
Concrete Block Company before joining Newman Bros. Ltd., General
Contractors, founded by his grandfather, Jabez, in 1878. Jim
became office manager and then president of the company. He was
an active and dedicated alderman on City Council for six years.
He was a zealous participant in numerous construction associations.
In later years, he was on the Board of Directors and Board of
Governors of the Shaver Hospital and served devotedly for seventeen
years. He had been a member of the Niagara Falls Club, St. Catharines
Golf and Curling Club and a long time member of the St. Catharines
Club. The family would like to extend special thanks to Dr. Earl
HUNT who has been so attentive and caring, and to the administrative
staff, nurses, aides and all workers who attended Jim with competence
and kindness at West Park Health Clinic. The family will receive
Friends at the Hulse and English Funeral Home and Chapel, 75 Church
Street, 905-684-6346 on Tuesday, December 20, 2005 from 2-4 and
7-9 p.m. The Funeral Service will take place at Saint Thomas Anglican
Church on Ontario Street, on Wednesday, December 21, 2005 at
2: 00 p.m. Cremation will take place following the service. The
family would appreciate expressions of sympathy be donated to
the Shaver Hospital Foundation. Memorial tributes may be made
online at www.mem.com.

SZEREMETA o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2005-06-19 published
SEED,
Jimmy
Passed away at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Barrie on Friday,
June 17, 2005 in his 59th year. Jimmy
SEED is the loving husband
of Joanne of Innisfil. Loving father of Brian and his wife Angela,
and Kelly SEED.
Papa of Makayla and Alexis. Survived by his sister
Linda SZEREMETA
(Casey) and by his nephew Scott. Jimmy will be
fondly remembered by his parents Mac and Margaret
SEED.
Friends
may call at the Innisfil Funeral Home, 7910 Yonge Street (Stroud)
(705) 431-1717 on Monday from 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. A funeral service
will be held in the chapel on Tuesday, June 21st at 1: 00 p.m.
Cremation. As your expression of sympathy, memorial donations
may be made to the Children's Wish Foundation. Words of comfort
may be forwarded to the family at jimmyseed@innisfilfuneralhome.ca

SZERENYI o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2005-04-03 published
SZERENYI,
Elizabeth (née
SZAKACS)
Peacefully, on April 1, 2005 at West Oaks Village in Oakville,
after struggling with Parkinson's Disease for several years.
Elizabeth, loving wife of the late Joseph of 36 years. Second
youngest of 10 children of the late Mr. and Mrs.
SZAKACS of Parad,
Hungary. Beloved mother of Alex and his wife Susan, and Peter
and his wife Cathy. Cherished grandma of Charles, Michael and
Sharon. Mrs.
SZERENYI immigrated to Canada in 1949 with her dear
friend Anna
KNAUTZ and was a resident of Scarborough for 16 years.
She was quick with a joke and kept people smiling everywhere,
especially her Friends at Kensington Retirement Home and West
Oaks Village. Friends may visit at the Jerrett Funeral Home,
660 Kennedy Road, Scarborough (between Eglinton and St. Clair
Aves. E.) on Tuesday from 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. Funeral Mass on Wednesday
at 10: 30 a.m. at St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic Church, 432
Sheppard Ave. E. Interment Pine Hills Cemetery. If so desired,
donations to the Parkinson Foundation would be appreciated by
the family.